Bridge Worker Indicted On Federal Charges In Colorado

Related Tags:

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A former California Department of Transportation engineer is facing charges in Colorado that he tried to smuggle military computer equipment to China.

Philip Chaohui He, also known as Philip Hope, is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Denver on Wednesday.

Prosecutors say He purchased almost $550,000 worth of memory circuits from a Colorado company and then tried to ship them to China in baby formula containers. The circuits are used in satellite communications.

He was arrested in December.

He worked on the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Caltrans spokeswoman Tamie McGowen said he was fired ten days after his arrest for failing to show up to work.

McGowen said his work for Caltrans was completely separate from the charges in the indictment, and he never had access to information that was not publicly available.